At the start lookin' pretty smug.

Hello Friends. A little over two weeks ago I participated in the Philly Livestrong Challenge. I’m sure you’re asking yourself, ‘um, Gregg, why the hell have you waited for 2 weeks for some kind of lame race report.’ I have a good explaination, really I do, but I’m sure you would end up looking at me as lazy a**hole who couldn’t get off his big butt and write something. Life, you mo fos, life. It’s been insane in my life trying to keep up with my little business. So much so that I have literally not touched my bike since the Livestrong Challenge. To my detriment.

Despite all of this, I have to write about the Livestrong Challenge in Philly. I have to. It was amazing. It was awful. It was inspiring. It was degrading. It had such a roller coaster of emotions on it that was overwhelming. I realize that cycling in general, especially over long distances, have these roller coasters, but let me assure you, this was a bit more enhanced.

We were scheduled to leave at 7:30. I was up at about 4:30. That’s AM. The line-up was significantly huge. There were literally thousands of people at this event straddling their bikes. I had originally thought that perhaps my lining up 45 minutes before was a bad idea, but after seeing the amount of people, I was pretty sure I chose wisely. The fray of a group of enthusiast can spell disaster for personal space and staying upright. It was impressive though. The amount of people there was downright incredible. Also incredible? Fat Cyclist had like 200 people representing him there. That was pretty impressive. I’ve got blog envy I think. Guess I should start writing more.

My hope was to document the entire ride through video. This didn’t happen. I have the ability to tape and ride at the same time, but I started the morning out with a thunderstorm warning. The ride coordinators stated as such as well, so I took the safe route and left my Flip camera in the car. Turns out I chose wisely.

So there were a few things that happened. I like my lists, so here it is:

Lance was there. It’s true. There should probably be some sub-categories to this but let’s just keep it simple. He was on stage right in front of the staging area where I stood with a few thousand others. People were going crazy to get a photo of Lance. They were straight up abandoning their bikes to move closer to get a picture. Lance accepted a check from Radio Shack for 1.5 Million. He stated that he’s never held a check for that much before. I think he’s lying. He had some friends there such as College, The Radio Shack CEO and one of his Livestrong U23 riders, Charlie Avis (you can read his take on this event here: http://www.treklivestrongu23.com/2010/08/broken-bikes-and-bow-ties/)

And they’re off! Well, kinda. Lance was riding this day. Cool, right? No. He went off with his group of exclusive friends about 3 or 4 minutes before the main group. When they let us go, it was actually mayhem. I made my way through the mess of people and emerged unscathed. I wasn’t sure if I’d catch up with Lance and his crew, but figured I’d settle into a nice pace to start knowing that the first bit was fairly flat. So I did.

I caught Lance! It was cool…um…kinda. I have no illusions as to my status with a man like lance. It is non-existent. I’m too much of a goofball, and not nearly cool enough to hang with Lance. When I say cool, I mean discreet. So I’m plugging along and end up with a group riding behind one of the Livestrong support vehicles. I thought that perhaps Lance and his group was up further, but wasn’t sure. I just rode in. It was a select group of guys that ride regularly of maybe 20 or 25 guys (and one girl). It wasn’t until we hit a little climb that Lance stood up and started climbing when I realized it was actually him. Cool, right? Sure. He didn’t ride with any of us, all us commoners where behind his group. Occasionally one of his people would roll back to the ‘nobody’ group and ask us to back off. So yeah, while it was cool to ride behind Mr. Armstrong, it was lame because he had Planet Lance going on (people orbiting him making any approach impossible). I get that he’s guarded. He’s a celebrity and such. My question is this: why come all the way out to Philly to ride with your friends? Couldn’t you do that at home? Whatever, though, I wasn’t there for Lance. I was there to represent Uncle Tony and Russ for cancer, so I made a mental note of how lame that was, and moved on.

The split. We hit a split. 45 mile riders went right, and 100 and 70 mile riders went right. Lance and his cronies went left, while the rest of us took the right. I told this to a lady at about the 85 mile marker and she aptly called Lance a name closely associated with female genitalia. I laughed. That marker was about 25 miles in, and I checked my average and it was about 22.5 mph. Not bad. Don’t worry, it was about to get much worse.

One of the favorite photos I took. These GamJams.net socks are white. Or were.

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring (or at least on the 45 mile route). Yeah, it rained. It rained a lot. The group of select people stayed together for a while. This is good, in theory. When it rains so bad that you can’t hardly see, getting sprayed in the face by the person you’re pacing behind, it gets a little unnerving. The roads were stupid slick to boot with the rain, so it was a little precarious. Not knowing the course, it was difficult to descend too. When it rains that much, you brakes hydroplane. What that means is that there is so much water between your wheels and your brakes that when you pull the brakes, they don’t touch the wheels and you therefore don’t stop. So with slick roads, tons of rain and windy descents not knowing what is around the corner makes some stressful riding. With the death grip on my brakes, getting cold from the rain (it was only 70 degrees), my legs started getting tired much faster than they should have. I couldn’t help but think about 2008 Tour of California.

Come to Jesus. It was bound to happen on this ride. Bound to. I realized that there was an excellent chance that I am just not pro material. I knew I had the mental strength to finish this thing, but to put any kind of pace together for this was not gunna happen. By the half way mark, I was pretty much toast. I was cold, wet, and exhausted from the stress of riding on slick roads in a group. I do not have what it takes to be a professional cyclist. I love this sport, but damn if I can’t pull it together in these kinds of conditions.

The cut off. The ride organizers cut everyone off and re-routed them to the 70 mile route. Out of what I perceive to be thousands, only a hundred or so were ahead of the cut off. I didn’t find out about the re-route until the half way mark, but it explained the lack of cyclists. I know I’m not that fast.

Solo off the middle. Adam was suppose to come with me to this event. He did 50 miles worth of a Time Trial the day before and passed out. He didn’t come with me. While I made friends along the way, and even stuck with a guy for a good 30 miles chatting, I was rolling solo. This wasn’t so bad until I was at the 40-51 miles of flat stretches of farmland where I could see no cyclist behind me, and no cyclist ahead of me. I had honestly thought I missed a turn or something. I was riding completely solo for an hour or so. I’m glad to have brought my headphones (even though only one side worked because of the rain).

Half way mark. Apparently there is a climb before the halfway mark. This is understated. Remember how I was riding solo? Climbing solo on a climb you’re unaware of is the worst. A roughly one mile climb to the halfway mark at the Landis Store Restaurant with grades up to 13.5% just about broke my constitution. I can’t stand up because the roads are slick, and my rear wheel just spins out. I just sat in and suffered. I was about 3/4 of the way up when I realized that I’d be ok to get off the bike and walk the rest of the way. See that, I was joking with myself while in pain. I didn’t get off the bike. I did talk smack to the photographer that was strategically placed at the top of this angry climb.

Dude with a Livestrong tattoo on his forearm. I’m a douche. I said to this guy “whoa, you gotta be a pretty hard core fan to be rocking that tat!”. His son died of cancer when he was 4. We chatted about it for a bit, and I’m not afraid to admit that I was near tears hearing this story. I couldn’t help but think of my daughter, who is 4. This is why I was out doing this. This guy is riding, and contributing despite his incredible loss. I was humbled by his willingness to still be here. I’d be a mess and could only hope to have a semblance of this guy’s strength.

Peanut Butter and Jelly. I have to give a shout out to this staple. I am confident that it saved my life. I also have to shout out to the volunteer lady who wrapped one in saran for me to take on the road because it simply wouldn’t stop raining.

Cancer is a family tradition for some people. The guy I rode with for 30 miles after the half way mark was telling me how many people he’s lost in his family to cancer. It was ridiculous. He lost his brother last year. Cancer is so prominent in his family that he’s screened about every 6 months and is waiting his turn. I got the impression that he was there for family, and there for himself. I figured out that many people do this event for therapy. Bit shout to this guy who was plugging along nicely.

10 miles to go. The last 10 miles was the hardest in my life. Ever. I’ve dislocated both of my shoulders (like arm out of the shoulder cuff dislocated), have two compression fractures in my back, and have strained and torn ligaments from past sports injuries and they all came out in this last 10 miles. What was funny was that as much pain as I was in, I was still able to push myself to keep a big pace to finish. Mostly I just wanted it to be over.

In memory of Uncle Tony and Russ. I was doing this for a reason. I had promised myself to not get off the bike for any reason except to piss and refuel. The amount of pain that these people went through for this disease meant that I owed at least that. This ride had 6,000 feet of climbing in it. I wanted to get off at more than 1 point. I was hurting, exhausted, cold, tired, but didn’t stop. I was proud of that, even if the time as less than desirable for me. I finished in 6 hours. That includes the 30 minutes of refueling, and stopping to help 3 different people with flats. so 5.5 hours of actual riding time. At the half way point when I was suffering the climb and pushing a pedal stroke of a mere 50 rpm I said to myself “don’t be an asshole, Gregg. Don’t stop, stay on the bike. This pain is temporary.” knowing full well that the pain that Russ and Tony felt was not.

That’s it. I’m over 2,000 words. I figure I had to suffer through this ride, so you have to suffer through the report…or not. I have to give a huge shout out to Livestrong. This event was incredible. The support was amazing. I’m not exaggerating here. I will be doing this again next year. For sure. I have to shout out all who donated, and helped me raise money to donate to the cause. When I was suffering, I thought of you people too. Lastly, I want to thank Kevin at Rage Cycling for donating a full kit. He lost his dad to cancer and trust me when I say that I was riding for him too.

done. Not looking so smug now, am I?

So next year, how about a team? I’ll get some jerseys made and we can do this across the country for Livestrong. I was thinking of something along the lines of ‘Team Cancer is Lame Sauce p/b District Cycling’. What do you say? It’s amazing, I promise!

Well, it’s Labor Day, but still Michael Creed Monday. There is a lot going on in my life, not the least of which, my involvement with Mike Creed.  That said, I thought I’d throw this little gem up because it’s coming….

It’s true. You can see the temporary site that has the logo on it on the actual site of www.CreedsCreed.com.

You can also follow Magic Mike at @Michael_Creed on Twitter. Don’t do it for me, do it for the children.

http://www.districtcycling.com/podcast/DistrictCycling_Episode28.mp3

If you can’t listen here, copy and paste this into your browser to listen: http://www.districtcycling.com/podcast/DistrictCycling_Episode28.mp3

Subscribe! (via iTunes)

Local News:

MABRA.org

Sunday, Sep 12, 2010: Bobby’s Turkey Day Race

Cross starts end of Sept.

MABRACross.org

Pro News:

Vuelta Espana Recap:

2. Stage 2 and 3 recap. Hutarovich outsprints Cav and Farrar. Gilbert looks strong for Worlds

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5456/Oscar-Freire-admits-he-had-never-heard-of-Hutarovich-before-today.aspx

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5446/Philippe-Gilbert-looking-to-push-himself-harder-than-ever-before.aspx

Garmin Cervelo Merger

Bad timing for the riders and support staff? http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5434/Kelly-says-timing-of-Cervelo-announcement-makes-things-difficult-for-the-riders.aspx

Husvold confirmed for Garmin.http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hushovd-confirms-garmin-transition

A Few Links We Discussed:

http://mystomachisfullofanger.com/

http://www.ritteracing.com/

Twitter Shouts:

Huge shout to @SDVeloSocial and his wife who just went through her 3rd treatment for cancer. His website is http://sdvelosocial.wordpress.com/

@StomachOfAnger

@ritteracing

Oh Mike, don’t be so hard on yourself, any team would be lucky to have you. Oh man, now I’m just gushing. Follow @Michael_Creed on Twitter and hear life from a different perspective.

There’s always next year.

The air is ripe with the coulda shoulda woulda’s. Some bike racers are still chasing the form they were hoping to have a month ago, others are just wanting it all to be over, and some of us just can’t seem to get enough.

Wednesday night was the end of the Greenbelt Racing Series held each Wednesday night in Greenbelt, Maryland during the summer. I like to think of Greenbelt as our own little local fight club. Well if it were fight club, I wouldn’t be writing about it, because the first rule of fight club is…

I met this young guy brand new to bike racing at Greenbelt this past week. He was trying to figure out where to park, what the course was like, and how to race. It kinda made me laugh a little inside. It was like looking back in time 2 years ago when I started at Greenbelt as a rookie. When the guy asked me for a tip to racing the course, I just smiled and told him to “have fun”.

I have a special affection to this race for  few reasons.

It was the birthplace of my obsession with bike racing. Back in 2008 fresh off my experience at the Tour de France, my buddy Gregg (the guy who runs this site) talked me into coming out for the race. I think he told me it was a good race for beginners and that “i would be fine”. I got up the courage and went out for the race. I didn’t know anyone, but Gregg introduced me to a couple of his friends. I might have met Lance Lacey and Chuck Hutch. I had no idea who these guys were, nor did I understand why Harley Davidson sponsored a bike team. After I figured out how to pin my number on (by watching Chuck use his steering wheel in his car…i still use this method) the race was off. I got dropped on the second lap and got lapped by the “C” group 3 times. With my head tucked in shame, I went over to the table to turn in my number. I probably would have quit bike racing all together, but something kept me from doing so. Which leads me to my next reason this race is so special to me…

Bagels and Nutella. Yup after each race, we are left with basket of assorted bagels and Nutella. Not sure how I made it 33 years of my life without Nutella. Some might say the hill leading to the finish is the toughest part of the race. I say it’s the bagel choice decision that needs to be made each Wednesday night. Plain or poppyseed? Or the eternal question of “half or whole”? Nothing like scooping that last bit of Nutella from the jar.

The Familes. I love seeing the moms and dads out there on lawn chairs cheering the racers. Let’s face it, bike racing isn’t always the most exciting thing in the world to watch. Especially on a Wednesday night in the heat of the summer. It’s pretty cool hanging around the juniors and hearing them trade stories about their last race. They are the ones that will keep bike racing going, so we are fortunate to have a race where they can compete and grow as racers.

My Dad. I wish my Dad had a chance to see me race my bike before he passed away. We did manage to come out to Greenbelt together last year. It was pretty cool packing up the car together and heading out. I remember he brought his camera and video camera and was pretty excited. We got out there, I took a few warm up laps, he got some cool photos, then it started pouring rain. Race cancelled. Kinda sucked, but we had a good time together talking about bike racing and continuing our relationship with sports. He has the best seat in the house right now, and I still hear him yelling at me whenever that wheel in front of me starts to slip away on that nasty hill leading to the finish.

Damn I love bike racing.

Adam

You know when I’m super busy when you have two Michael Creed Monday’s with nothing in between. What can you do?

Yes they do. Yes they do. Follow @Michael_Creed on Twitter because he’s the bomb diggity. Word.

Follow @Michael_Creed on Twitter because he would probably make more money on the road as a comedian than on the road as a racer of bicycles.  Stupid economy.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks. Before I start this post, I would like to thank everyone for the heartfelt condolences on the loss of my Dad. Dad was my biggest fan, and now has the best seat in the house.

Ok, so how did I end up in Glencoe, Illinois for the criterium national championships? Well if there is a crit, you can pretty much bet I will be there. Not to mention how cool is it for us Cat 4’s to get to race on a championship course?

The day before the race, I had the chance to visit my buddy Fred who is fighting stage 4 terminal testicular cancer. Fred and I are best friends from high school. We would battle each other for hours on the blacktop basketball courts of Aurora, IL. Now he is fighting a new opponent and I am beating the pavement in a new way. Gregg and I are doing the Livestrong Challenge in Philadelphia and I will be carrying Fred’s fighting spirit for every mile of the 100.

Pre-race went pretty much to plan.

Well it went to plan until I crashed on the warm-up lap. I’ve managed to negotiate some of the toughest crits on the race calender this year without crashing. The crash wasn’t anything spectacular. I slid out on a corner. Not even one of the tough corners on the course. I skinned up my arm and leg and ripped the bar tape up. Not the way to start a race. Especially a race like this one.

The course was gnarly. 10 corners. Most of them were sharp 90 degree turns leading into very narrow roads. The nastiest part of the course featured a screaming downhill section leading into a sharp 90 degree turn leading into another 90 degree turn that lead into the hill. The ambulance was parked right on that corner. You could see skid marks and bike paint on the pavement. Daniel Holloway, who won the pro race, called that corner “death”.

I knew the race would start fast. It was cool to see Nick Versus Gravity out there. I knew if I could stick on his wheel, I would be in good shape. Well things didn’t work out that way. There were 104 guys on the start, and I was on the back row at the start. The course was such that gaps just occurred naturally. We were strung out pretty good for the first few laps. A group of about 25 guys got a gap. I found myself in a second group about 10 seconds back. I got into the second group after weaving my way through 2 crashes, some guy who dropped his power meter and slowed down in the pack to get it, several dropped water bottles, and flat tires. Life at the back sucks!

Once I got into the second group, I felt like we would catch back on to the front 25. There were about 20 of us moving along pretty good and we were closing. Then the gap started growing and nobody wanted to chase. I was encouraging the group not to give up. It was too early in the race and more than half the field had dropped already. We were still in it! The body language of everyone in the group changed. Heads were bobbing, the motivation was leaving. Even the moto ref was encouraging us to keep going. I put in a hard effort on the front not wanting to give up. Well we never caught back on and the front group rolled away. I was happy with my effort.

The Glencoe Grand Prix is a race you must put on your calender! Here are a few highlights from the race.
1. You actually get to sign in like the pro’s. They had a banner that all riders signed.
2. The rider hospitality tent is awesome. Complete with homemade energy cookies.
3. The crowds were great! I don’t think I have ever seen bleacher’s at a bike race.
4. We had a lead car in our race like the pro’s. I think it was a convertible Mercedes.
5. There was a sprint competition in addition to the normal premes. The sprint winner got a watch.
6. The winner of the Cat 4 race get’s a jersey.

Well that’s all. Next up for me will be the Livestrong Challenge followed by the VA Track Championships. Yea, you heard it TRACK!

I love bike racing.

Adam

The LIVESTRONG Challenge 100 miles is coming up. It’s in about a week and a half. I’ve been riding, for sure, and am feeling like I’m getting there. My legs feel like hell though. I’m not gunna lie. I could be the vacation/travel/fatigue thing, and I’m resting, and doing rest miles, but my mind is on the prize for sure.

I’m ending the LIVESTRONG donation/giveaway on Saturday at noon. I can still take donations, but there will be no signed Levi Leiphiemer championship jersey, Team Type1 from Michael Creed or Rage Cycling jersey associated with it. No, the prize you get for donating, except the prize of love in your heart for doing something nice.

So in preparation, I’m doing lots of miles. I’ll push 100 on Saturday and taper down from there for Sunday. I have a hotel about 4.5 miles away from the start/finish area, so we’re close enough for sure. My wife and kids were going to come, but after we drove 6 hours to the beach in what I can only describe as the Portal To Hell coming back, we came to the conclusion that my 1 year old is less than accommodating for a semi long trip. My wife chillin’ for 5 hours (or what I hope is 5 hours) is less than desirable. What can you do.

Adam is going too, by the way. We are planning to document everything into what I can only assume will be the most boring video blog ever. It will be good times all around!

In the midst of this, I have managed a sponsor for the ride. Rage Cycling is outfitting me with a full kit to ride in. I have some old LIVESTRONG jerseys, but they are warn and, I’m not too embarrassed to say, too big. I’m not longer a XXL on my jerseys. That said I’m pretty stoked. I’m a fan of the designs and the owner, Kevin, is a class act. I’m not just saying that because I’m getting a kit out of them, but he is legitimately a good guy. You can check Rage Cycling out at www.RageCycling.com or on Twitter @RageCycling.

So, as my last ditch effort to beg for donations for the LIVESTRONG Challenge, I write this. It is my hope to show up with at least a thousand. I’m nearly there. I’m doing something similar on my other website, that is more personal than anything, but am auctioning off my artwork. So, Saturday at noon is the cut off. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. I believe this to be a very worth while effort and appreciate the efforts you make to donate.

So, to recap: Every $5 donation enters you to win a signed Levi Leipheimer championship jersey (I obtained it on my own. It’s from my own little collection), a Large Team Type1 Jersey from Michael Creed and a Rage Cycling jersey. So do it! Donation/Giveaway ends on Saturday, August 14.

Can’t wait. Follow Mike Creed on Twitter @Michael_Creed.